Beach Read
By: Emily Henry
Pages: 384
Published: May 19th 2020 by Berkley
Type: Women's Literature, Fiction, Romance
My Rating: 5 Stars
I didn't want this one to end. I read the first half on Friday night and fought sleep, but eventually had no choice. Jumped out of bed early Saturday to get back to it, but found myself putting it off all day long until the kids were asleep and so I could fully immerse myself back into it and savor each page.
Synopsis:
January Andrews is a romance novelist who recently lost her father and find herself at a house on a lake that she didn't know he owned. She is fraught with the pain of losing her dad and the discovery that he, and her parents' marriage was not what it seemed. She is instantly annoyed by the gruff and unfriendly guy living next door. She discovers that she actually knows neighbor Gus from college and they had a complicated and not unfriendly relationship. In fact, he is also a novelist, of more serious literature.
January and Gus exchange banter and sarcasm and eventually challenge each other to swap genres for their next books- she drags him to various settings that would be the making of a lighthearted rom com and he brings her to his various interviews and spots for heavy research. Tension builds.
My thoughts:
This was not a beach read. In fact, I still haven't completely figured out why this book is called Beach Read other than a splendid marketing ploy which, despite my review, leaves a sour taste in my mouth as a consumer. Yes there's a lake with a beach, but it doesn't play much into the story, but I digress....
I should also mention that I tend to hate books about authors of books- it's a common theme and one that I feel is often a copout. But this one worked for me and my initial disappointed reaction to the theme was quickly squashed.
The tension between the main characters and the slow reveal of the reasons for each of them acting the way they do was like a flame drawing a moth. I could not help but feel physical reactions to certain scenes- and it's rare a book can do that for me- I usually recognize emotion and gloss over it to get to the next parts. While reading this, however, I was heartbroken, angry, swooning, all of it. I think I loved that this was a true romance novel but it wasn't all wild horses and happy endings and wedding bells.
There was something more sinister and real about the characters and dare I say....literary? Without spoiling anything, it was actually tough to "watch" at times. January was self effacing which I appreciated at points, because, yes, she acted like a dumb teenager with her "woe is me" woman in a romance novel attitude which would have otherwise made me very annoyed. I appreciate that the author felt she had to use those devices, but also peeled back the curtains when she did so. I loved that this book had more substance to it- the emotions attached to several of the underlying themes was satisfying and gave this book more merit.
I think for me this was a four star read, but the effect that Henry's writing had on me- needing to savor a book- made me bump it up to a five star read. I don't read that slowly to make a book last for many authors.
Who would I recommend this to?
This one is probably more for women, and I'd say anyone who loves a good romance would like this book, but because of it's underlying themes, fans of literary fiction would also appreciate Beach Read and all it has to offer.
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